The Beginning of the Solution of the Agrarian Question “from below” in the Spring of 1917 on the Example of Krasnoslobodsky Uyezd of Penza Province

Abstract

Introduction. The article is devoted to the beginning of the peasants’ struggle for land in the conditions after the February revolution of 1917. Materials and Methods. The research uses materials from the Central State Archive of the Republic of Mordovia. In the work on this study, a problem-chronological method was used, as well as a micro-historical approach to consider all-Russian events at the county level. Results. The main content of the study is the beginning of the unfolding of the struggle of peasants with landlords for land. The peasantry, constrained by small land, by appealing to the authorities through writing sentences, seeks to pay attention to this and resolve the land issue in their favor. No less important problems of Krasnoslobodsk peasants were the lack of meadows for feeding and walking livestock, as well as numerous penalties imposed on them by landlords. These legal forms of struggle for the possession of land go in parallel with the pogroms of landlords’ estates and the removal of property and fodder from them. It is also worth noting the growing tension between local peasants and tenants from other settlements, to whom landlords leased their arable land and meadows. Discussion and Conclusion. The study confirmed that the local peasantry is an active participant in solving the agrarian issue “from below”, and its opponents in the form of various kinds of landowners are beginning to give up their positions. At the same time, the parties are trying to appeal to the local authorities, who, basically, are trying to take the position of an outside observer, without seriously interfering in the unfolding agrarian struggle.